Mechanical Design Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Finding a Graduate Job in Mechanical Design Engineering or CAD? Hi I have just got my degree in CAD Engineeing and I am finding hard to find a graduate job in the field of mechanical design engineering. If anyone could help me find a place I could look for a job like this would be amazing. Thank you. I forgot to say I live in the united kingdom.

Answer: I recommend NASA. Go to NASA.gov and look for jobs there. Also, you can write me and I will give you my email address, and I will submit your resume to some NASA contractors in Huntsville, AL. In the meantime, in addition to NASA.gov, check at tbe.com, and find the ATK and Boeing websites and apply to those. Good luck!

Question: Can i use 3ds or maya for mechanical design? I have learned 3ds and Maya myself. But later i heard that pro/engineer is more suitable for mechanical design, so can i use 3ds or maya to replace pro/engineer?

Answer: The problem with both most of those CAD-based software packages is the measurements. If you start out with AutoCAD, 3Ds or Maya, investigate how you will draw in cm, in, miles or whatever because you set up square grids basically and freehand.

Question: mechanical design? type of questins asked

Answer: Are you asking type of question asked in your exams? Well, it depends on your syllabus and university, however some common questions will be design of gears, joints, welding, etc.

Question: Professional Course to enhance the skills for working Mechanical Design Engineers? I am mechanical Aerospace Design Engineer. I am looking for upgrading my skills in some of the mechanical design skills. For example: GD&T, Tolerance Stackup Analysis, Product Design, Aerospace Structural Design. Presently, i am living in Tustin, California. I want to know is there some institutes or companies in around Tustin or Irvine, who can provide training in my interested topics.

Answer: The above post has some good spots to look, especially for strength/design considerations. Most makers of FEA (Finite Element Analysis) have training to familiarize you with their products. These training sessions are very expensive and require further investment in software and maintenance packages. ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) has some courses for things like GD&T. Some courses are on-line and some are held at locations around the country, some of which are likely to be near your location. Personally, I've found their courses a bit on the pricey side too. Sometimes local colleges will have courses of interest. This tends to be the most cost effective method of learning if you can find classes that you'd be interested in. Normally there is some method of taking classes without going through ALL the formal procedures for admission to a degree program.

Question: My fiance went to school for mechanical design, but he is awesome at graphic design? My fiance has an associates in mechanical design engineering. He was originally going for graphic design, i dont know why he stopped. He made our wedding invitations, and he is just amazing! I am so so impressed! He showed me what he has done in the past too. Is there any way he could get a graphic design job if he created a portfolio of his work even though he is a mechanical design major? I think he would be so much happier =]

Answer: It all depends on the people hiring.

Question: Whats a small mechanical design I can build? I need to build a relatively simple mechanical contraption. It can do pretty much anything as long as it is mechanical in nature. It also can not have been done before. It must be able to be built in under 50 dollars as well. Any ideas?

Answer: Good luck finding a mechanical device that has not been built in some form in the past. It would need to be something useless like a centrifugal plate drier and I would guess that at some time in the past even that has been built.

Question: What can Mechanical Engineers design? I'm looking forward a course in mechanical engineering, my aim is to design, but I am wondering, what can mechanical engineers design?

Answer: I am a Mechanical Engineer. Mechanical Engineering is the study of design, manufacture and maintenance of machines. As for design, I list a few things. Cars, aeroplanes, ships, manufacturer's production lines, steam and gas turbines, pumps of all sizes; form the petrol pumb to the nodding donkeys. Tools such as lathes, milling machines, shapers, piller drills, horizonal and vertical borers. The list is endless. Basically, if it is make of metal and it moves then Mechanical Engineers have designed and built it. Good luck with you studies. In the main you will need to wrap your head around Newton's theories of movement, trigonometry and transposition of formulii. You will also need to get yourself an Engineer's data book and a scientific calculator.

Question: Can someone help me find a mechanical design guide to PCBs? I'm an ME working on a consumer electronics product made primarily from injection molded plastic that encloses a PCB. I'm unsure of what tolerances I can expect from the PCB. I need to know these tolerances so I can appropriately define boss diameter sizes and spacing as well as various other features that meet PCB to plastic. Thanks.

Answer: IPC is widely recognized as the governing standards organization by pcb manufacturers. IPC-2221 has tables that list, for example, the flexural modulus, tensile strength, thermal expansion, and glass transistion temperatures of many different pcb dielectrics. In the association's own words: "IPC-2221A is the foundation design standard for all documents in the IPC-2220 series. It establishes the generic requirements for the design of printed boards and other forms of component mounting or interconnecting structures, whether single-sided, double-sided or multilayer. Among the many updates to Revision A are new criteria for surface plating, internal and external foil thicknesses, component placement and hole tolerances. Expanded coverage is provided for material properties, dimensioning and tolerancing rules, and via structures as well as updated coupon designs for quality assurance. 112 pages. Released May 2003." They charge $65 for the latest copy and you can quickly get a downloadable version.

Question: How many hours and days do Aerospace Mechanical Design Engineer work?

Answer: 40 hours in 5 days unless there's an emergency. There's always and emergency.

Question: Is there any hopes to join a mechanical design engineer into a software industry?

Answer: If you are a mechanical design engineer you could join companies like Geometric software solutions. I would suggest you to join companies engaged in CAD/CAM solutions because it will be related to your field.

Question: How to start small scale mechanical design related company? Any association is there to help? Design Company

Answer: Designing has become very faster now. Here are some suggestions. You can start with a small office & a little workspace. Then you need to put , 3-4 computers, loaded with design softwares like Auto CAD, Catia, Pro-E etc. Then you need professionals to work on them. In the work place you need max. kind of measuring instruments including anvil, surface plate etc. In office you need master computer & almiras to maintain drawings. The work of designing can be accesed from big industrial hubs (automobile mainly). They distribute their work to vendors through drawings. Your work will be to convert those drawings to 3-D models. Its not easy to get the designing job at initial level. But depends on your hard work. Then you need are the manufacturers of those components. The work done is then supplied back to vendor. Generally vendor contact directly to the local manufacturers & the latter have their own CAD labs & CNC m/cs installed. So a local manufacturer will be a key to start your business. Then slowly add manufacturing & hosting as a vendor to your business. All the best !!

Question: What path to go down for Mechanical engineering for weapon design? I would love to go to Virginia to Take a class for Mechanical engineering but then the main thing I want to do in that Field if Weapon design and engineering. What path do I take to go down that trail? Thank you

Answer: I am certain that you mean "Virginia Tech" and not UVA (if you mean UVA, then please stop reading this, as a Hokie I have nothing to say to you :-P ). Check out this page http://www.me.vt.edu/programs/undergrad/Path2009.pdf it is the checklist for graduating from the different programs. A far better method than asking someone on the internet is to call the department at the colleges that you are interested in and ask them for information about their programs, they can give you specifics.

Question: what CAD software is most commonly used by Mechanical Design Engineers?

Answer: It really depends on the discipline. For instance the majority of Automotive and Aerospace companies use CATIA or Unigraphics. While some automotive use Pro/Engineer in pockets, this is limited. However most heavy vehicle (trucks, tractors, dozers, etc.) use Pro/Engineer. The mid-range CAD market (AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks, SolidEdge) are all used in the manufacturing realms (special machine, tooling, fixtures, etc.). AutoCAD 2D still has a 10:1 market share over all other products combined in that market, but AutoCAD 2D use in new designs is dwindling and the use of SolidWorks and Inventor are growing in double digit percentages. If you're planning on working for an Automotive OEM, Tier I or Tier II or Aerospace I would suggest CATIA or Unigraphics classes in school. If you're planning on anything else pick whatever 3D CAD package you school offers, the mid-range packages are all similar in functionality and you can learn one if you know another.

Question: want start my career in mechanical design.Which is the most common used in industry?

Answer: Try Mechatronics, good future.

Question: As a mechanical engineer could I design robots, uavs and animatronics? I was looking into different types of engineering degrees and I am not sure which one would be right for me. I really want to design things like robots or uavs for the army. I would also be interested in a more design aspect than the building. I really love google sketch and other graphical programs. I also noticed that almost most mechanical engineering jobs seem to be about manufacturing screws or ball bearing which doesn't look like fun at all to me. Would electrical engineering be better for this?

Answer: yes these categories fall under mechanical engineering, enjoy. However... get used to some more complicated programs than google sketch. ie matlab, cad 3d, etc. Electrical engineering also falls into these categories. Basically, if a company was attempting to make a robot for example, they would probably have both mechanical and electrical engineers on the team. You just need to decide what emphasis you want.

Question: What is the best free 3D CAD Design Software for a mechanical student? What is the best free 3D CAD Design Software for a mechanical student to be installed and learned?

Answer: Actually "Autodesk Inventor" and "Solidworks2008" are the most best two and the most known, and easiest to use as well. I use Autodesk Inventor v.11, it is very effecient, easy interface, and simple to draw and produce layouts .. etc. I 've learned Autodesk Inventor in only 2 weeks, and then I did so many projects with this software. it 's really nice and simple. Students share this program (and many other programes) on torrents, you can download the free "torrent prgram" (2Mb) from www.utorrent.com and follow the instructions and you will find everything simple. Then download the CAD progrma using the torrent file downloaded from any of the sharing websites. Here are the links for the torrent files that will allow you to download the prog. Autodesk Inventor : http://rapidshare.com/files/151414986/__Demonoid.com__-Inventor_11__autodesk__crack_5322825.0188.torrent.html Solid works : http://rapidshare.com/files/151415377/_-Demonoid.com-_solid_works_solidworks_2007_with_service_pack_2_2i_update_5322825.0188.torrent.html Both programes have Tutorials and Help files, which is really simple and easy to learn from. and in short time. If you are new to torrents then you will probably need help, just messege me. Good Luck